The WNBA’s task force of team presidents and general managers met to discuss the growing debate over transgender athletes and issued a strong statement afterwards.
After Indiana Fever’s Sophie Cunningham publicly announced her stance on trans athletes in the WNBA, a major political debate has broken out over the subject, leading to former NBA players Enes Kanter and Royce White declaring for the WNBA Draft.
The WNBA assembled a task force to address this situation and issued a statement after the first meeting of said task force with important stakeholders.
WNBA did not announce new eligibility rules while slamming ‘bad-faith efforts’
The WNBA issued a statement to the media after the first task force meeting, confirming that they don’t view any current eligibility matters as a threat and slamming bad-faith efforts on this topic.
“Today’s meeting covered a wide range of topics, including ongoing discussions on transgender athletes and the continued hate and vitriol directed at players online. We will continue to engage all league stakeholders in the coming weeks and months.”
“We will approach these important conversations thoughtfully and in alignment with the values of our league. There are no immediate eligibility matters affecting the WNBA, and we strongly denounce the bad-faith efforts to use these topics to demean or marginalize others.”
The current WNBA CBA, signed earlier this year, states that ‘only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA,’ but it doesn’t define what a woman is.
This is the loophole that Enes Kanter and Royce White are relying on to make an issue out of the WNBA’s eligibility rules, with both stating they will follow up with lawsuits if they’re denied entry into the WNBA.
The league will be forced to define a woman eventually, but as their statement said, they don’t view this situation as an immediate eligibility threat.
Continued discussions might lead to a clear definition of which athletes can play in the WNBA and which athletes can’t, but the league won’t be rushed in these discussions because of Kanter and White’s actions.
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